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Africa Horn | |
White Widow's role in the trade in horns from elephants and rhinos | |
2014-01-14 | |
Poaching and wildlife crimes are worth an estimated £11billion ($19billion) annually - and it's terrorist groups that are cashing in, according to a new report.
The number of black rhinos in Kenya has fallen from about 20,000 in the 1970s to approximately 650 today. Poachers continue their illegal killing because it is highly profitable. Elephant tusks and rhino horns are sold at extraordinary prices - $50,000 (£30,000) a pound for rhino horns on the black market. Declaring that the slaughter of elephants contributes directly to the killing of humans, the Elephant Action League (EAL) calls ivory 'the white gold of jihad'. Al Shabaab apparently pays above the odds for ivory, but so great is the mark-up that it generates up to 40 per cent of its revenues from the trade and can pay its 5,000-odd fighters £180 a month plus food and khat -- the drug used by almost every male Somali. It is thought the fanatics make £400,000 a month selling 'blood ivory' on the black market. EAL launched a two year undercover investigation of elephant poaching in Kenya in 2011. Andrea Crosta, who led the investigation, said many poachers he spoke to said they were increasingly selling to al-Shabaab, New Scientist reported. He said: 'Part of al-Shabaab's funding has been, and is still, from ivory.' He added that according to sources in the militant group, 3 tonnes of ivory were passing through Somalian ports each month. | |
Posted by:Steve White |
#1 I'm thinking drone zapping the poachers as a worth while thing |
Posted by: Chantry 2014-01-14 18:09 |